With hospitals slammed by covid-19, doctors and nurses plead for action by governors

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Fri, 2020-12-04 10:36 — mike kraft

With hospitals slammed by covid-19, doctors and nurses plead for action by governors But the efforts have had negligible impact as more than 100,000 coronavirus patients jam U.S. hospitals. Lenny Bernstein Washington Post

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With few options left, overwhelmed doctors and other caregivers are appealing directly to governors for relief from the staggering increases in hospitalized covid-19 patients as the virus surges across the country.

In Connecticut, Tennessee, Missouri and Mississippi, physicians have issued unusually public pleas for stronger responses to the pandemic as hospitals and their staffs near a breaking point. The number of hospitalized covid-19 patients surpassed 100,000 on Wednesday, placing enormous strain on the nation’s acute care hospitals, where there are roughly 730,000 beds.

The efforts have achieved little in the way of tangible relief so far, and in one case drew a rebuke from Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R).

Without a new relief package from Washington, governors have adopted a variety of approaches to grapple with the runaway virus while trying to keep parts of their economies alive. That includes allowing some businesses, such as restaurants and gyms, to remain open with limited capacity and other restrictions.

The largest organized effort by health-care providers may be in Connecticut, where dozens of doctors wrote Gov. Ned Lamont (D), asking him to halt indoor dining, close gyms and ban “all other unnecessary public gatherings.” Nearly 700 people signed an online version of the letter, adding comments that illustrate their frustration and fear about the unrelenting flow of patients into the state’s hospitals.

“We are prepared to do whatever we can to care for, comfort, and heal all those that we can, but we want everyone outside to know what we are up against, and not to assume that our capacity is limitless,” the Nov. 24 letter to Lamont said....

The Connecticut doctors have fared better than colleagues in Mississippi, where Reeves on Tuesday rejected a call to reinstitute a statewide mask mandate. That Nov. 24 plea came from four medical leaders, including LouAnn Woodward, vice-chancellor of the University of Mississippi Medical Center, and Claude Brunson, executive director of the Mississippi State Medical Association. ...

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